Walmart to seek lawsuit review

Walmart to seek lawsuit review
By Jonathan Birchall in New York
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010
Published: April 26 2010 20:23 | Last updated: April 27 2010 01:24
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/44370374-5162-11df-bed9-00144feab49a.html


Walmart is to ask the US Supreme Court to overturn a large class-action sex discrimination lawsuit against it, after a US federal appeals court narrowly ruled the long-running case could proceed.

The California-based 9th circuit court of appeals announced on Monday that its 11 judges had voted 6-5 in the case, which opens up Walmart, the world’s largest retailer by sales, to a complaint filed in 2001 that extends to hundreds of thousands of its female employees.

Ted Boutrous, Walmart’s lawyer in the case, said: “Walmart intends to seek Supreme Court review”.

The case, Dukes v Walmart, was originally brought in the names of seven former female employees, but includes affidavits from some 120 Walmart employees, arguing that the company’s male-dominated culture had placed barriers in the way of women seeking promotion and paid them less.

Legal arguments have so far centred not on the merits of the complaints, but on the size of the originally proposed class – estimated by both sides at about 1.5m women – and making it the largest case of its kind in US legal history.

Judge Michael Daly Hawkins said “although the size of this class action is large, mere size does not render a case unmanageable”. But Judge Sandra Ikuta wrote in the lead dissent that without proof of a deliberate policy of discrimination “there is nothing to bind these purported 1.5m claims together in a single action”.

She warned the move would mean “the door is now open to [similar] lawsuits targeting national and international companies, regardless of size and diversity”, based on “general allegations”, “anecdotes” and “statistical disparities”.

The judges left the lower court to decide whether Walmart should face punitive damages if it lost the case – the largest civil rights suit of its kind – which could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Walmart had argued the complaints should instead be brought by individuals.

The two sides argued whether changes made by the appeals court decision significantly reduced the number of potential class members. Mr Boutrous agreed with the majority that the proposed class would now comprise about 500,000 women.

Jocelyn Larkin, of the Impact Fund, a non-profit group arguing the claim, said the changes still left more than 1m women in the class.

Over the past five years the retailer has sought to improve its record on employing women and minorities in its management ranks and has improved its monitoring of compliance with state and federal laws.

The case is being closely watched by American business groups, who say it could vastly expand the scope of US class action law.